It's been quite a while since I posted about ramen. Delicious, amazing, ramen. So today I am going to talk about a new place that just opened up in my town of Tsuchiura. A place that is a ramen restaurant but looks like a Japanese Edo style restaurant. That place is Menya Kaguya.
Menya Kaguya
Menya Kaguya is in the Otsuna area of Tsuchiura. It is in a small strip mall next to a relaxation massage place. I highly recommend coming by car because all there is in that area are factories and gas stations.
The Ibaraki Eats Duo found out about this place through the magazine "Ramen Walker." (It is a Japanese magazine and very informative about different ramen places around Japan.) We decided to grab some ramen for dinner on a hot Tuesday night and check out this new place.
Inside
The inside is very Japanese and really cool. There is a counter section and tables section. The owner was alone that Tuesday night so he only opened up the counter section. The menu was on the ticket vending machine by the door which is a usual sight at a ramen place.
The Menu
First, we have at the very top, the soy sauce Kaguya ramen, and the salt Kaguya ramen. But something caught my wife's eye on the menu and she told me about it. The Kaguya ramens are made with shijimi, which are small clams usually put in miso soup. I have never had that in ramen form before so I was interested. The next button is the Kaguya tsukemen ramen and next to that... TOMATO RAMEN!? Seriously!? My wife really wanted to try it but in the end she decided to try another ramen instead. She did vow to try it next time and you can bet I will post about it.
The next buttons are bamboo chicken ramen, both soy sauce and salt options. Finally, the tomato ramen in tsukemen form.
Bamboo Chicken Ramen
This ramen also sounded really interesting and it is the ramen my wife ordered. She told me the bamboo really didn't matter, it was more about the chicken broth. She let me have a taste of her ramen and it was quite good. The chicken was amazing and the broth was excellent. My wife ordered the salt version of this ramen, but I didn't really taste that since the chicken flavor took over everything. It was a tasty chicken ramen, no Ryusuke chicken ramen, but delicious nonetheless.
Shijimi Shoyu Ramen
After I tried my wife's ramen, I got a chopstick full of noodles from my ramen and slurped away. It was a soy sauce ramen and I definitely tasted the clams in it. The noodles were a little thin but went well with the broth. I wasn't a fan of the chashu. It was a little too peppery and thin. Other than that, I did like this ramen. It was different and what surprised me was that it tasted and felt healthy. When I finished my ramen, I didn't feel overly stuffed like I usually do. It was nice not to feel like I couldn't move after a bowl of ramen.
After we finished, I thanked the owner for the delicious ramen. He then informed me that the menu may change next month so the shijimi ramen maybe over by the time you read this. I was also surprised to learn that the owner used to work at Hurricane Ramen in Tsukuba which I will talk about in a future post. Kaguya's ramen was delicious and interesting. I am curious to see what the owner will cook up next for the new menu.
So if you are in the mood for some new style ramen and are in Tsuchiura, why not give Kaguya a chance. Who knows, you might see me there, watching my wife try the tomato ramen while I try the new ramen on the menu.
Enjoy!
For more information on Menya Kaguya, check out their Twitter account:
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